Book Review-Simply Love by Mary Balogh

New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh returns to the elegance and sensuality of Regency England, weaving a captivating tale of four remarkable women—friends and teachers at the exclusive Miss Martin's School for Girls ...

Anne first spied him in the deepening dusk of a Wales evening—a lone figure of breathtaking strength, his handsome face branded by a secret pain. For teacher and single mother Anne Jewell, Sydnam Butler is a man whose sorrows—and passions—run deeper than she could have ever imagined. As steward of a remote seaside manor, Sydnam lives a reclusive existence. Yet he senses in Anne a kindred soul, and between these two wary hearts, desire stirs. Unable to resist the passion that has rescued them both, Anne and Sydnam share an afternoon of exquisite lovemaking. As scandal looms, suddenly the unwed mother and the war-scarred veteran must make a decision that could forever alter their lives ...

Mary Balogh is a classic romance author, and I have been wanting to pick her up more and more. In Simply Love we have a story of two lonely people who need each other. Our heroine, Anne Jewell, teaches at a girls school in the country, and has a nine year old son she has had to raise on her own after being forced years ago. Then the cousin of the father of her son, invites Anne and her son to a house gathering for a month, many are relatives of her son. So she agrees, planning on keeping to herself and letting her son enjoy being with boys his own age. But there she meets the Duke of Bewcastle’s steward. Sydnam, is a man who once was a talented artist, but sought out to prove himself. So he went to fight in the war, he came back after being tortured, scarred and damaged. He has built a new life for himself, but he still feels alone until he meets Anne who fills a space inside him that has been empty. Sydnam and Anne form a friendship which slowly turns into something more….can Anne and Sydnam find a future together?

I was really overwhelmed in some ways by this story, but not quite in the way that you would expect. Simply Love is a powerfully written story that is beautiful and one of the most poignant stories that I have ever read. There is so much you want for both of these two people. Anne and Sydnam both deserve to find happiness especially when you see how much they have dealt with and overcome. However both of them are pretty stubborn as well. Their friendship is what is the primary focus of the story, I did feel that the actual romance was lacking. That is really the only reason for the lower rating, I was expecting the romance to be more stronger than this story turned out to be. But it was wonderful seeing characters from the Bedweyn series being connected to this story.

“Life so often becomes a determined, relentless avoidance of pain – of one’s own, of other people’s. But sometimes pain has to be acknowledged and even touched so that one can move into it and through it and past it. Or else be destroyed by it.

Simply Love is a romance that will inspire and elighten, leave you happy and craving more stories just like this one!! SIMPLY MEMORABLE.

Have you read Mary Balogh before? What are your favorite titles?

What is there to love about friends to lovers romances?

About Mary Balogh

Mary Jenkins was born on 1944 in Swansea, Wales, UK. After graduating from university, moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, to teach high-school English, on a two-year teaching contract in 1967. She married her Canadian husband, Robert Balogh, and had three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, music and knitting. She also enjoys watching tennis and curling.

Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling Slightly sextet and Simply quartet. She has won numerous awards, including Bestselling Historical of the Year from the Borders Group, and her novel Simply Magic was a finalist in the Quill Awards. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.